Shattered Realms

After the Battle

“The Guard Captain” is the account of Captain Hector who was sent to offer ther heroes some magic to help them to continue to hold the wall.

The captain saw the soldiers were tired, but he should have expected that. Still the stories he had heard all through the day of battle told a different tale. He had been told, these were not men, but gods of war, unleashed from ancient days and turned loose upon the enemy. But the captain did not see gods huddled around a tiny fire as the sun settled in the west. He saw only five tired soldiers who were not sure they would live to see another sunset and did not care.

As he walked towards their camp he slipped on a body, and then another, and another. They were camped among their fallen foes, heedless of the blood and death around them. As he closed he saw that each man had wounds that would have broken lesser men but they all sat quietly among the dead, resting, with their weapons near at hand. And when the terrified captain put fresh blades before these soldiers, one glared back as if to say “where were you today?”